Dot Farley: “The Ugliest Woman in Motion Pictures”

Today is the birthday of Dot Farley (1881-1971). A second generation thespian from the Chicago area, she made her stage debut at the age of three. After several years as a professional actress in the theatre, she made her film debut with Chicago-based Essanay Studios in 1910, moving west to Hollywood when the studio opened a facility there. During the silent era, she worked at nearly every single comedy shop, frequently billed as “The Ugliest Woman in Motion Pictures” by virtue of her crossed eyes and prominent teeth. Some of her best remembered films from the silent era are Bangville Police and Fatty Joins the Force (both for Keystone in 1913), and A Small Town Idol (also for Sennett, 1921. She is best known however for playing the nagging mother-in-law of Edgar Kennedy in a series of his comedy shorts for RKO in the 30s and 40s. Like this one:

Like this:

Related

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. He has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, which has presented hundreds of top variety acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Lady Rizo to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces in NYC since 1989 at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre and the Brick. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit I’ll Say She Is, the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, recently cited by Bette Midler in People magazine as one of her favorite book. More about All Things Trav S.D. are at: http://travsd.com/
View all posts by travsd